Painted around 1780, this stylish young lady reads the latest novel as she sits on a Hepplewhite style chair beside a small pedestal table placed by a window with a pastoral landscape view beyond. The artist has cleverly used the window to introduce light and perspective to this striking portrait.Fashionably dressed, the lady wears an open robe in powder blue with a panelled skirt and a buckled ribbon belt. The long narrow sleeves have pearly buttons on the cuffs and the low décolletage is covered with a diaphanous fichu, the ends tucked into the neckline at the front. She has accessorised her dress with a single pink rose on her corsage, pearl drop earrings with a matching pearl necklace, and a sepia memorial or love token brooch pinned to her fichu. Her voluminous unpowdered hair has been curled and is topped with a striking ‘picture’ hat trimmed with powder blue and white ribbons. These wide-brimmed hats were immortalised by Gainsborough’s portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devon...